True Beauty A Dangerous Romance
by Harlowe Keets
Summary: It is sixth year for Luna Lovegood. While Harry, Ron and Hermione are off searching for Horcruxes, life at Hogwarts continues. Focusing on Luna's point of view, we get an in-depth view of the Hogwarts in this dangerous year. Packed with action and Romance


**CHAPTER ONE**

**HOPE**

Luna watched the rain accumulate on the car windows drop by drop, a dreamy smile on her lips. The wind pulled the crystalline droplets along the glass as the car whipped down the highway, shining like delicate orbs of light. At each turn, the wind hit the glass a new way and pulled the drops in different directions… it reminded her, almost, of a sort of dance. A dance where water and wind became partners. They made beautiful partners.

She was pulled from her dreamy trance by her father's voice from the front seat, asking the same question he'd asked at least a dozen times since they'd gotten in the car earlier that morning.

"Are you ready?" he asked. She turned her dreamy smile on him from the back, nodding. If there was one thing she could say about this day, she supposed it could only be that she was ready. She wasn't pleased to be returning for the new term, not with everything going on in the world… but she wasn't discontented. She knew it was her place for now, where she needed to be, and she accepted it.

"I'll be fine," she told him again as they pulled into Kings Cross Station. He killed the engine with a sigh and looked out on the downpour with wary distain. Luna's smile got wider at the sight of her father's expression. She opened her car door and got out with her trunk, taking her time as if the sun were shining. With ethereal serenity, she closed the door and stood in waiting for her father. The rain soaked her through in the short time it took her father to grab her owl, Andromeda, and get out of the car. He ran to get out of the rain as she wheeled her trunk away from the car in a leisurely pace, savoring each drop of rain that hit her face.

Soaked through, dripping and shivering but entirely content, she finally arrived beside her father in front of the barrier between platforms nine and ten. She walked casually toward it, that natural dreamy look in her wide silvery eyes, and passed through with ease. Xenophilius appeared behind her a moment later, trailing behind slightly as she turned the corner and the Hogwarts Express came into view.

The usual hustle and bustle of Platform 9 ¾ was lost. The confusion, the loving goodbyes, people greeting one another after the long break, all gone. Luna wondered whether it was the alarming decrease in students attending Hogwarts this year… or the conditioned fear of lingering in one place for extended time periods. She suspected it was both. She turned to her father, who looked nervous.

"I'll be fine," she said again. She hugged him and kissed his forehead with divine gentility and whispered, "I love you."

She walked off without a word, her silvery hair flowing gently behind her.

He watched from his compartment window, his famous sneer firmly in place as she stepped onto the train and out of his sight. He had yet to see Potty or Weasel, or their mud blood pet. The girl Weasel had stepped onto the platform not ten minuets before that nut case, Loony. Trailed by her mother and one of the twin Weasels, who had a hole in his head where his ear should have been, she quickly took her trunk and kissed them goodbye before stepping onto the train. Half a second later, both older Weasels had disappeared.

Potter and Weasel should have been with them, the Granger girl too. But they hadn't, as he knew they wouldn't. He knew, it would be his job to find out why…

She looked in compartment after compartment. Many were completely full, like always, but many too were completely empty. This was unheard of, but Luna understood. Wizarding families were scared for the safety of their children… especially now that Dumbledore himself had been taken by the darkness that threatened them all. If Dumbledore hadn't been safe… who was?

Luna peered into a compartment and, catching sight of Ginny's long red hair and almond brown eyes, slid the door open and pulled her trunk in. Ginny sat across from Neville Longbottom, and both of them smiled as she entered. Luna smiled back, happy to see her friends again and thinking maybe this year wouldn't be completely horrible after all.


End file.
